


Everything is fine in the middle of nowhere

by voguelight (sulfurus)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Camping, Character Death, Horror, Implied Relationships, Jun's point of view, Other, POV First Person, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 10:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16473446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sulfurus/pseuds/voguelight
Summary: When Jisoo suggests camping near an abandoned hotel, all everyone thinks about is cool creepy pictures and s'mores. Except for Junhui, maybe. He thinks about all the horror movies he's watched. But he's with friends, right? What could possibly go wrong?A Halloween surprise horror one shot. No archive warnings for no spoilers. Some swearing occurs. Remember to check the tags!





	Everything is fine in the middle of nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> Let me get this out of the way first: please excuse the first person point of view, it is entirely caused by reading way too many creepypastas in the spirit of ooky spooky writing research.  
> And just like that, I return with a little Halloween treat for the general audience after two years of radio silence and a near departure from the fandom. While the hiatus was entirely unplanned, so was this sudden comeback. All thanks to Rachel (@joshuamericano here on ao3), the undiscovered psychological horror genius (I'm still waiting for you to sister snap and write something sister spooky), for giving me all of the ideas in the world, and to Sana (@lushwang here), my fabulous beta-reader for this one-shot (thanks for putting up with my comma vomit!) and an author of some quite spooky works. If you're into horror, make sure to not miss their works.  
> With all of that being said, you're welcome to put on some horror ambiance background music and I hope you will enjoy your read.

I didn’t get much childhood, between being a child actor, doing martial arts, and school. However, I _did_ get my fair share of scary movies, horror novels, and sleepless nights. As I grew up and out of the fame’s eye, and started surrounding myself with real friends, most of the frightful child in me faded away, but still, I was rather easy to scare.

So while most people associated camping with friends, fun, bonfires and s’mores, it wasn’t much of a shocker my first thought was horror movies. My friends knew that, or at least suspected, but still I didn’t want to ruin the mood of our little photography camping trip. I tried to not bring it up whenever I felt uncomfortable, or just odd.

In hindsight, that was a mistake.

I wasn’t spooked out all the time, though. The entire hike through woods passed in amazing atmosphere. We were all close friends, the six of us, so how could it not?

Mingyu and Seungcheol argued over who gets to lead the expedition, Mingyu claiming to be the one who was crowned King Of Survival of his survival camp, Seungcheol playing the oldest card. Jisoo seemingly kept out of the conversation, but whenever he could, he would land a jab on Seungcheol, or on unsuspecting Jeonghan, who, truth be told, was mostly busy complaining. When Minghao wasn’t trying to subtly make fun of Mingyu, as this was his preferred way of flirting, he spent most of his time taking macro pics of the woods and then asking me for opinion. And me? I was just laughing my head off for the entire time.

Setting up the camp passed in a similar way. We started early in the afternoon, and when we finally lit the fire, it was already evening, the sky turning maroon and violet, just as beautiful on the camera screen as in real life. It was summer, so the sunset was long and pleasant. We didn’t even need the bonfire’s warmth, but we still wanted to set it up ‘to complete the experience’, as Mingyu said.

“If you want to eat wood tasting stick s’mores, then eat them, I’m not going to eat leaves and that’s the end of discussion,” he argued with Minghao.

“I literally just saw you eat beef jerky from the ground, you heathen, stop invalidating my s’mores,” he snapped right back, continuing to build his sweet treat on a branch. Knowing Minghao, instead of annoyance, I knew there was only kindness behind his words. I smiled.

“Hey,” I turned to Jeonghan. “Pass me one more marshmallow.”

He did, and then he smiled fondly at me. “So tell me, out of ten, how do you rank your camping experience so far?”

“It’s a ten,” I answered immediately, but then turned my head away. Sun was setting slowly, and the shadows between the trees were getting deeper. A reminder of how we were alone in the middle of nowhere.  “Or a nine, maybe.”

“Still scared?”

“Who’s scared?” Seungcheol chimed in, slightly tactless but very caring, as was his brand.

“I’m not,” I barely managed to protest when Jeonghan cut in. “Jun is!”

“Come on. There aren’t any murderers hiding in the woods.” Quite the contrary from Minghao; when Jisoo spoke with a soft smile, I knew he meant mischief. I rolled my eyes.

“Ha, ha.” That could be the end of that discussion for me, but not for my friends, already trying to squeeze in a punchline in there, but Jisoo spoke over them easily.

“It’s only ghosts of all the victims!”

Even though I was the butt of the joke, I didn’t feel bad. I couldn’t, not when Minghao started pretending to be a ghost, and Mingyu started yelling at him for almost making him drop his canned food. The laugh carried, and I felt like no evil spirits could get us when we were all being so happy. Everything was fine.

Finally we finished eating, and cleaned up. Whoever declared they had to go, was also declared the woodbringer. Minghao volunteered to clean up the camp, and I helped him. Soon Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Mingyu all returned with more brushwood and branches. It wasn’t a surprise Jeonghan was carrying almost nothing, and also claimed to be the most tired, ready to just lie down.

“Where’s Jisoo?” I asked absent-mindedly, only noticing his absence when silence stretched between Seungcheol and Jeonghan for too long.

“He went to check out the hotel.”

“All by himself?” Minghao asked what I thought.

Mingyu shrugged. “Someone had to carry the brushwood. I mean, he’s been there before, right?”

That was true, so I shrugged as well. It was Jisoo’s idea to go to this specific location, saying he’s went camping in the woods before the hotel closed. Minghao seemed concerned, and I didn’t quite understand why.

However afraid I might have been of the darkness surrounding us, I had to admit Jisoo’s suggestion was right. The woods were beautiful, the hike pleasant. I could understand why someone decided to build a hotel in the area. Why it closed though, I had no idea, but I wasn’t too worried.

“I bet he wants to take night-time photos, “ Minghao furrowed his brows. It seemed I have misunderstood his annoyance for concern.

“He and what night visor? Minghao, the light is crap,” Mingyu answered, seating himself down on a blanket still on the ground from when we were eating.

“He’s gonna get the good shots.”

“It’s not like they’ll disappear by tomorrow,” Jeonghan’s voice carried funny from where he was lying on the ground. I agreed.

Mingyu and Minghao quickly got engaged with the photography talk, being the most enthusiastic about it, alongside Jisoo. Seungcheol barely chimed in, taking it more as a hobby than as a career path. Me and Jeonghan truthfully mainly joined for company, and, as we joked, for modeling. Instead of listening to the technical talk, we quickly shifted to just talking about what we wanna do tomorrow.

Jeonghan mentioned seeing a river nearby when he browsed the maps. He wanted to open a map app on his phone, but of course, we had no service. I felt a drop of fear make its way to my head. Of course. We were out in the woods. Why would we get service? It was perfectly normal, and yet the thought of not being able to contact the world if I so wished made my skin crawl a little.

I didn’t say anything, however, and instead let Jeonghan look for the paper map he had packed into his bag.

“He didn’t take his camera,” He said instead from the tent where he was rummaging through his belongings.

“What?”

Jeonghan crawled out of the tent with Jisoo’s camera bag, and set it aside. “Joshie didn’t take his cam.”

As he said that, we both seemed to come to the same realization. It’s been quite a while since Jisoo’s left the group. I swallowed nervously.

“Maybe we should go look for him?” I suggested. The sooner he joined us, the faster we’d be able to stop being nervous. He probably just got melancholic or something in the old hotel, but the possibility he got hurt was hanging in the air like thick smog, and I didn’t want to let the feeling grow.

“Why not,” Jeonghan seemed much more optimistic than me. “I know which way he went.”

“That doesn’t mean much, Jeonghan, the woods are thick. How do you know where the hotel is?” I asked. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jeonghan, it was just that I myself had no idea where we’re heading.

With a sigh, Jeonghan dived back inside the tent and grabbed the map. He unfolded it and then quickly jabbed at something with his finger. “We’re right here, so the hotel is here. It’s literally just a five minute walk in that direction,” he then pointed, and I felt that he knew what he was talking about.

I turned around towards the fire, and a ‘hey guys’ froze on my lips when I noticed how close Mingyu and Minghao were being to each other. Their foreheads were touching, and I didn’t want to interrupt their little moment. They made each other happy, and I really wanted to see them have something more than just skinny love, so I let them be.

Jeonghan must have seen the same thing as I did, because he walked over to the other tent, the one Seungcheol was in. He opened the flap without announcing his presence first and I half expected a frightened yelp, but I heard nothing else than their soft voices. Jeonghan ducked from under the awning soon enough.

“Let’s go,” he nodded, and so did I. We both grabbed flashlights, even though it wasn’t quite dark yet, and then we left. I just followed Jeonghan as he picked the direction.

We didn’t really speak. Jeonghan attempted to strike some conversation, but I was simply scared, and I think he could tell. Why hasn’t Jisoo returned yet and what was keeping him? Was he hurt? I knew Jeonghan was worried too, but he didn’t let it take over him like I did.

After a moment we reached a gravel road, and it led us straight to the hotel. We could see it in the distance, in the warm light. It was obviously abandoned, but not in the worst shape. Some of the windows were still in, the vine didn’t climb terribly high, the roof was in nearly perfect condition, and so was the porch. No graffiti. No sign of vandals or junkies.

Unfortunately, no sign of Jisoo either.

“Jisoo?” I shouted, and so did Jeonghan. We didn’t hear anything back. Was he not there? I felt skin on the back of my neck crawl. Why was Jeonghan so calm?

“Come on, let’s look around,” he suggested instead of yelling again. I wasn’t too terrified of the house itself, but I was glad we weren’t walking in yet anyway.

The front door looked like it was opened recently, and yet I wanted to avoid it. To give myself some courage I turned my flashlight on, and walked close to Jeonghan as he circled the hotel, facing the porch.

As we walked, we noticed a back door, which we tried to open. It gave in easily, but there was rubbish on the other side, indicating it hasn’t been moved recently, so we closed it back again, and finished walking around the hotel. It was quite big, so it took us quite a while.

I pointed my flashlight at the gavel parking space, at the brick paved yard and some now overgrown flower beds, as well as the woods around. It all looked almost perfectly normal.

“Joshua?” Jeonghan called him by his other name, and then again. “Jisoo? Come on, man.”

“I think he’s not there.” I answered, liking this option much more than the alternative that he can't answer, for whatever reason.

“Let’s just check,’ Jeonghan insisted, and entered the hotel, and I trailed behind him.

It was much darker inside, but so far my flashlight was enough, as we didn’t separate. The reception looked almost functioning, except there were no keys to be seen in their boxes, and the desk was empty. Dust and dirt covered majority of the surfaces, and I could see a couple of spiderwebs in the corners. I suspected more bugs must have made their way in, but I didn’t want to look around too much.

The hotel had an eerie, maybe a little unsettling vibe to it. I tried to imagine it in sunlight, what sort of pictures could be taken then, and walked on. As the corridor progressed, we encountered a big space that had to be some sort of an event room, or maybe a common room, even.

Against my better guess, Jisoo was sitting there, on one of the couches. I almost jumped up, startled.

“Jisoo, man,” Jeonghan laughed, “What the hell?”

“Hey, guys.” He seemed unphased, and smiled gently, but didn’t turn to us, facing the windows.

“We’ve been looking for you,” I pointed my flashlight down as to not blind Jisoo with it. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” He answered, calm.

Jeonghan approached him with a smile that soon changed into shock. “Oh my god, Joshie!” He exclaimed as I quickly walked up to them to check what made Jeonghan react this way.

The side of Jisoo’s head was bleeding from where he had a gash in his head, mostly hidden under his hair. The blood trickled down the side of his head and around his ear, almost to his collarbones. I covered my mouth in shock.

“Jesus, what happened? Did you hit your head?” Jeonghan asked, but it was pretty obvious he must have.

“It’s fine,” Joshua calmed him down, and let him turn his head whichever way Jeonghan wanted it. Urged by Jeonghan’s gesture, I pointed some light at Jisoo’s head, so we could get a better look.

“No, it’s not, you’re bleeding.” Jeonghan was concerned, and tried to dab away the blood with a corner of his hoodie.

“Whatever.”

“Let’s get you out of here, hm?” I offered to Jisoo. “We can take care of your head in the camp.”

“I want to show you something,” Jisoo answered in return.

“Jisoo, you’re hurt. We should go back.”

“It’s fine,” he repeated, standing up, and I started being sick of this phrase. “Just this one thing.”

As he stood there, my flashlight illuminating him from underneath, I thought he looked quite sickly and pale. He must have been feeling faint, maybe he lost more blood than this.

“Alright, alright. Show us the thing and let’s go.” Jeonghan must have come to the conclusion that it’s not worth fighting with Jisoo. It almost never was. Apparently his worsened state wouldn’t change that.

Jisoo gave us his faint smile again, and then turned around and just started walking. We followed. He seemed to know where he’s going pretty well, not even looking around, but was walking rather slowly. I had time to take in everything that was around me. The creaky floor, the old walls, ceiling with mold stains, all looked unnatural in the sharp light of the flashlight. It filled me with unease, almost dread. I wanted to leave the hotel, but Jisoo was walking and I knew I had to follow him.

We walked through a corridor, then into an utility room, and then into another, passing empty cabinets and trolleys. Then we reached a staircase, and while the stairs looked pretty sturdy, actually, Jisoo was going up them very softly. Jeonghan however stopped dead in his track after putting his foot on the first stair.

“Where… Where are we going, Jisoo?” Jeonghan sounded concerned, almost annoyed.

“It’s near.” His answer gave me the chills.

“What is? Jisoo, just…” Jeonghan trailed off and put a hand on his head.

“Jisoo?” I asked, but he wouldn’t turn around.

Jeonghan groaned, as if in pain, and grabbed his head more tightly. I started getting really worried, so I called out again. “Jisoo?”

He turned to me, and I almost gasped. His face was even more pale than before. He was a couple of steps into the stairs, but the light coming from beneath him couldn’t be all there was to it. While his eyes were always big and doll-like, they seemed almost glossy now, and sunken in. His lips were almost purple in color and seemed thinner. I didn’t like how he looked at all.

Jeonghan must have thought the same thing, because he started to climb in his direction. “Jisoo, come on, we’ll just come here tomorrow…” He started, but then Jisoo spoke over him.

“It’s all good,” he ensured, but his face didn’t look comforting. Hell, I don’t think it moved at all.

“It’s… Not…” Jeonghan was now holding his head again and I walked up to him to make sure he doesn’t fall off the stairs or something. Almost as soon as I held him up he straightened his back.

“Yeah, it’s… Whatever…” He started mumbling.

It didn’t make any sense, I thought. I was feeling more and more unsettled by the second, and I just didn’t have any idea what was actually going on.

“It’s not okay, let’s get out of here.” As I said it, Jisoo turned his eyes on me immediately, and I felt the blood go cold in my veins. Were his eyes always this dark?

I stared for a second, unable to speak, and then backed away. As I did, so did Jeonghan. He the started hitting his head and tugging on his hair. I was forced to turn my gaze away from Jisoo.

“Jeonghan, what are you doing?”

“It’s not… I don’t know what’s- Stop!” He was speaking very chaotically, and shook his head a couple of times.

“He’s fine.” Jisoo said slowly, and then turned back around. One by one, he went up the stairs, leaving me with my heart pounding in my chest like crazy. Almost at the same moment, Jeonghan started hitting his head against the wall.

I panicked.

I grabbed Jeonghan by his hoodie and pulled him down a couple of stairs, away from the wall. He then reached with his hands to his head again, mumbling half-sentences that I couldn’t fully understand.

“Stop! Jeonghan, stop!” I shouted at him, but he didn’t listen. I tried pulling his hands away from his head, in an attempt to protect his scalp from his fists. “Just stop!”

He didn’t try to attack me, but we fumbled a bit, and we got a little further from the stairs. Jeonghan slowed down his attacks and I grabbed him by his wrist.

I didn’t know what was going on but I knew we had to get out of the hotel. I was terrified, my heart going miles per hour, and I just wanted to get to safety, to someone who could tell me what’s going on. I almost expected Jisoo to follow us, either to get to the camp as well, or to drag us forcibly up the stairs, but he didn’t, it was just me and Jeonghan, getting out of the building.

While at first I had to drag Jeonghan behind me, he seemed to regain his senses after a second. I felt him walk by himself, quickly, behind me, and then I half felt, half heard him slow down his steps on the gravel road.

“Jeonghan?” I asked, more worried than scared.

“I don’t feel… “ He started, and then swayed a little. I quickly rushed to grab him.

“Let’s go to the camp, alright? Let’s just go back.”

“Let’s go back,” he repeated faintly and let me pull himself some more.

By the moment we got off the road, Jeonghan was half laying on me, his arm on my shoulders, and I had to almost carry him. I kept talking to him, but he seemed to lose his consciousness with every second. Walk through the woods was slow, but I managed to pull him to the camp.

Almost immediately, Seungcheol ran up to us and grabbed Jeonghan. “What the fuck? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” I almost cried. “Jisoo is really weird, he hit his head or something, and  then Jeonghan started punching himself-” I was panicking, my breathing erratic.

Minghao and Mingyu walked out a tent and towards us, and Mingyu jumped to help Seungcheol lay Jeonghan down. Minghao however was quickly by my side.

“Hey, you’re okay, Junhui, you’re safe. It’s alright.” He wanted to calm me down, but those last three words made me shake my head in fear.

“No, no, no, listen.” I inhaled deeply and tried took comfort in Minghao’s warm hand on my back. He always knew how to calm me down. “Jisoo is in the hotel, he’s acting super weird.”

“Weird?” Seungcheol inquired.

“He just kept saying everything’s fine and that he wanted to show us something, but he just… He wasn’t reacting or anything. And then we followed him and Jeonghan started hitting himself and pulling his hair, and then fainted, I don’t know why, and-” I couldn’t talk anymore. I was too scared, remembering the way Jisoo stared right through me.

“Something’s wrong.” I almost sobbed as Minghao pat my back.

They didn’t say anything for a while so I finally lifted my head. Mingyu was looking at me and Minghao, extremely concerned. Seungcheol tried to divide his attention between me and Jeonghan, who was now in the safe position.

“I’m not crazy!” I said when I finally got my grip back, at least partially.

“No, we know.” Mingyu said. Seungcheol and Minghao both nodded, and I felt a little better. “What should we do?”

“We should go look for Jisoo. You said he hit his head, right? Maybe he’s concussed.” Seungcheol said, folding his arms in worry. While I knew what he was saying sounded sensible, I also had a deep feeling he wasn’t right.

I shook my head. “You can’t go in there, I swear it’s too weird.”

The guys looked at me with something akin to pity.

“Junnie,” Minghao started, and I knew something’s wrong. “I know you’re scared, but…”

There it was. “I swear there’s something wrong!” I protested. I thought they believed me.

“Wrong or not, we can’t just leave Jisoo there and go on our merry way.”

“Can’t we wait until tomorrow morning? Or maybe Jisoo will…” Come back, I wanted to say, but I couldn’t force those words out.

“Yeah, alright, we’re going,” Seungcheol’s resolve was sound in his voice. I couldn’t argue.

“I’m gonna go, too,” Mingyu stood up but then Minghao opposed him almost immediately. “No, you’re not! I’m going.”

“We can both go,” Mingyu tried.

“Someone has to stay with Jeonghan.”

“Jun can?” Seungcheol questioned, and my face must have betrayed what I think once again because he quickly grimaced. “Uh, Jun can’t.”

“Jun can’t stay, we don’t know how to get to the fucking hotel,” as Minghao reasoned I realized I will have to go back to the place I suddenly dreaded more than anything. It was just half a kilometer away, maybe less, but every step I could take away from it made me feel safer.

My friends argued for a while over who should go and who should stay with Jeonghan. I looked at him, still unconscious, still in the same safe position. His face was pale, I thought, looking a little scary in the bonfire’s light. I didn’t know what happened to him, but I knew he must have went through quite a shock, seeing how he acted and how he then suddenly lost all his strength. All I wanted was for him to be alright.

“Okay, I get it. I’ll stay.” Minghao angrily approached me and Jeonghan, and sat down next to us. As soon as he faced me, however, his expression changed into a much more gentle one.

“You’ll be okay, just get Jisoo back quick.” His tone was a little commanding, but his eyes were so warm. I knew he just wanted the best for me and for our friend, still stuck in the hotel. I trusted him and got up on my feet.

“Let’s go.”

We all grabbed flashlights this time, as without them, we would barely see the path in the woods. It made me so much more uneasy, knowing it’s getting darker with every passing second, and that we’d soon be in the completely dim hotel, looking for Jisoo with only those little rings of light to help us.

I couldn’t bear to talk as we walked. Mingyu however didn’t have this problem, wondering from time to time whether Jisoo’s okay, asking if there was blood where he hit his head, how much, wondering if we’ll be able to carry him if we wanted to. Seungcheol didn’t talk that much. As we walked, I thought he seemed a little scared, too.

After hitting the gravel road, I couldn’t see the hotel in the distance immediately, unlike last time. It was too dark for that. That simple fact made my skin crawl, and I wanted to turn back immediately, but I couldn’t just do that and leave the guys alone with the Jisoo task. It wouldn’t be fair, I reasoned.

“Jisoo?” Seungcheol didn’t raise his voice all that much to call for him. Mingyu shouted more loudly, but I shook my head.

“He’s not gonna answer,” I said, and I was right.

“Jisoo, come out!” Mingyu called some more. Nothing.

“Let’s just go in,” resigned, Seungcheol sighed.

The floor creaked a little as we walked. I wasn’t completely sure if it did that the last time, and I swallowed nervously. The reception and hallway were just the same, though, and so was the common space. It was empty this time, but I didn’t really expect to see Josh there.

“Wow, it’s kinda creepy.” Mingyu said, almost cheerfully, prodding a stray chair with his foot.

“Yeah, it kinda is.” Seungcheol didn’t seem too happy about that fact.

“Jisoo?” Mingyu shouted one more time. “Is he even in the hotel?”

“I last saw him going upstairs. He said he wanted to show us something.” I recalled with a tremble in my voice. Nevertheless, I pointed with my flashlight in the correct direction. “The stairs should be down this corridor.”

“Maybe we should split? And look through the rooms first?” There was hesitation in Mingyu’s voice, but not enough for me to do anything else than give him and Seungcheol a pleading look.

“I mean, if you want to,” Seungcheol answered, and gestured around. “I can check around with Jun, and you can take the other side.”

“Let’s do that,” Mingyu nodded and just took off into one of the rooms. I wondered if he truly didn’t feel the unsettling atmosphere or if he was just pretending not to.

Seungcheol and I turned the other way, and we slowly started making our way around. I didn’t want to stray far from my friend and I knew he didn’t want to separate, either.

“The kitchen’s clear!” We heard Mingyu shout. Sound carried well in this place, it seemed, with the doors open and windows broken.

“He was here the last time,” I said, as I pointed to the common space I didn’t have the nerve to fully explore alone before.

“Here?”

“And then we went upstairs.”

Seungcheol sighed, but didn’t go in the direction we knew the stairs would be. That made me glad for a second, but I also knew we probably wouldn’t find Jisoo on this floor, and we wouldn’t be able to avoid going up forever. I went to check some other doors, carrying grim fear like weight on my shoulders.

“Some rooms here are closed!” I yelled after shaking a few doorknobs.

“Whatever! It’s not important!” Came a yell back. I sighed, but agreed. If they were closed, Jisoo probably didn’t get inside either.

The hotel was large, but we managed to check the place out pretty swiftly. Witch each empty room, each creaky step, dread grew inside of me thinking that I will inevitably have to go upstairs. I didn’t even know why I was so terrified of a flight of stairs, other than the thought that that was where noJeonghan started acting oddly.

“I’m going upstairs!” We finally heard Mingyu yell from the corridor.

“Alright!” Seungcheol replied, looking into yet another room with his brows furrowed.

We couldn’t stall for long. There wasn’t much left for us to check and we didn’t expect to find Jisoo anyway. We had to climb the stairs and join Mingyu.

As soon as Seungcheol placed his foot on the first step, I almost expected him to turn ghostly white and then start hurting himself just like Jeonghan did. None of that happened, however, and I decided to not bring that up least I cause Seungcheol to become more afraid. He was tense, but we needed to not panic. I knew that if everyone acted like me, the big coward, we’d leave the hotel immediately.

One, two, five, ten steps. Nothing happened. We climbed the entire staircase, Seungcheol in front and me following steadily. Everything was normal, still eerie and unsettling, but nobody starting acting odd, I didn’t feel a cold breeze take over me. That fact calmed me down. Maybe I was exaggerating after all?

“Mingyu?” Seungcheol raised his voice. “We’re here.”

“Jisoo?” I tried again, not expecting to hear anything back from the man. We didn’t. We also didn’t hear anything from Mingyu.

“Where are you, Mingyu?” Seungcheol asked again, moving down an unknown corridor, looking into the empty hotel rooms we were passing. He still didn’t reply.

Whatever calm I regained after climbing the stairs in peace, I now lost. Was Mingyu hurt too? Was there someone in here who first hit Jisoo and now hit Mingyu? Were we about to walk into their trap as well? Breathing heavily, I wanted to tap Seungcheol on the shoulder and tell him to stay quiet, but I wasn’t fast enough.

“Mingyu, what the hell?” He grew impatient, and almost as if on command, we heard back, “Here.”

Right next to us, in the door we were about to check, we saw Mingyu. The way he was looming in the doorway was a little creepy, but soon he walked into the room. It must have been an utility one, because I couldn’t see an abandoned bed nor a wardrobe, only low shelves.

“Thank god,” I said, happy just reuniting with my friend. “Any trace of Jisoo?”

“No,” Mingyu answered solemnly.

“We didn’t see him either. If he’d only fucking answer to our calls,” there was an edge to Seungcheol’s voice that wasn’t there before.

“Whatever.”

I turned around slowly from where I was looking deeper into the next room. Why was he saying that? Didn’t he want to find Jisoo? Seungcheol must have gotten alarmed by that response as well, judging by the look on his face.

I walked up to Mingyu to be able to see his face better. It was expressionless, tired, if anything. Not worried, not brave, not even frustrated.

“This is weird as hell. Where is he?” Seungcheol tried to get a response out of Mingyu.

“I don’t know.”

“Where were you?” I asked instead.

“Just. Here.” He gestured with his head, and looked at me almost as if asking, ‘why?’

“Did you hit your head?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I looked at Seungcheol, and then back at Mingyu. I was getting seriously worried with how out friend was acting. It made my skin crawl, and I wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Mingyu?”

“It’s fine.” He answered, and I almost whined in fear, hearing an echo of Jisoo’s emptiness in his words.

I almost ran towards Seungcheol and dragged him to the side by his elbow.

“Jisoo was acting the same way, I swear!”

He shook his head and I knew he wanted to ignore what was happening. “Jun, I know you’re scared but he’s not doing anything.”

I looked over at Mingyu. He was rhythmically hitting his head against the wall, a little more hard than would be usual.

“Not doing anything?” I asked in shock. “Seungcheol, this isn’t normal, we need to grab him and go, before he gets all crazy as well, I don’t even care about-”

“About what?” The voice that came from the corridor almost made me jump up. It was just off norm, enough so that I didn’t recognize it as belonging to Jisoo until I faced him.

“Jisoo!” Seungcheol looked relieved for a second before he noticed the wound on his head. “You look awful, let’s get you out of here.”

For the entire exchange, I was stumped in place. I couldn’t even move. The gash on Jisoo’s head somehow seemed larger than before, there was more blood on him, but that wasn’t the worst part. His eyes seemed sunken in, skin even paler in comparison with dark shadows under his eyes and the blood. He didn’t look natural at all. He must have lost a lot of blood, I tried to reason, but then he stepped forwards, closer to the light of our flashlights. There was absolutely no life in his eyes, so dark that they seemed pitch black.

“I’m fine.” He said, and I tried to not cry as my heartrate spiked up. He wasn’t fine, nothing was fine, Mingyu wasn’t fine either. I was afraid to say that. I didn’t want Jisoo to look at me with his weird, dead eyes again.

“We should get out of here,” Seungcheol reasoned and I was almost deadly thankful for his collectedness.

“Right, let’s go…” I started, and turned around to grab Mingyu, but my voice died in my throat.

Mingyu was sitting on one of the shelves, staring blankly into the space, holding his hands to his throat like he wanted to support his own head from below.

“Mingyu…” My voice trembled. “What are you doing?”

“I want to show you something, Jisoo said behind me in a calm voice.”

“Seungcheol, Mingyu is…” I tried to get his attention, but Seungcheol didn’t listen to me.

“If you insist,” He answered Jisoo. I broke eye contact with Mingyu just for a second to see him looking at Jisoo, not paying any attention to where I was desperately pointing my flashlight. “I’ll be back in a second, Junhui.”

I heard Mingyu choke. He seemed to press the hands harder to himself, by the way his muscles flexed.

“Stop,” I yelped, and the flashlight fell from my hands as I jumped up to him. Fortunately it was bright enough for me to still know what’s happening while it pointed away.

“I’m fine.” His voice was raspy, as if he was out of breath. I couldn’t understand what was happening fully, my head full of the deafening noise of my heart pounding.

“Stop, please, Mingyu,” I pleaded, trying to get his hands off his neck. His lips were going pale and I absolutely couldn’t move his hands from his neck, my friend being much stronger than I was. I thought about pulling him towards the exit, like I did with Jeonghan, but I couldn’t even get Mingyu to get up. In my frantic efforts, I must have started crying, but I didn’t care.

“Seungcheol!” I pleaded. “Help!”

Seungcheol didn’t come and Mingyu kept strangling himself, despite how desperately I tried to pry his fingers off, with ugly, chopped up wheezes. I thought it’s going to be all over when his hands suddenly went lax, and almost dropped to his side.

Of course, I thought through my tears. People can’t choke themselves to death. He probably passed out, I realized, and I should carry him back to the camp. I had to, even though I knew it’d be harder than it was with Jeonghan. In an effort to get him up, I circled one arm around his shoulders.

Snap. I almost felt it more than I heard it, and it was loud. A deep, fleshy snap coming from where I started embracing Mingyu. I inched away in fear, and then heard it again, as Mingyus’s head fell backwards, exposing his throat.

I could see deep, almost impossibly deep indents on his neck, like something invisible was pressing on it with great force, just where he had placed his hands before. Skin was turning purple and red where it was being pressed, and it kept getting deeper and deeper.

In my fear, I couldn’t even yell. Voice just died in my throat and I could barely move, trembling, fearing for my life, eyes as wide as possible, taking in the impossible sight in front of me. Then I heard another snap, Mingyu’s head falling to the side further than it should be able to, and then rolling back. Somehow, his face was still calm, empty, almost serene.

I couldn’t stand it anymore. With a scream that finally formed in my throat I jumped off Mingyu and just ran backwards a couple of steps. I didn’t even care to grab the flashlight.

“Seungcheol? Seungcheol!” I cried, hoping he’ll hear me and come, and maybe save Mingyu from the invisible force choking him to death, but there was no response. Mingyu’s head snapped again, and this time it looked like it should fall off any second, his throat getting impossibly squeezed limp. I could only back away in fear in to the corridor.

I ran a couple of steps before I noticed a light to my side. It was Seungcheol, in one of the hotel rooms, walking out of what had to be a bathroom once.

“Seungcheol, Mingyu is…” I cried before I noticed the pale hand on his shoulder. It was Jisoo, who was standing right behind him, almost entirely obscured from my view by a wall. They walked through the doorway together, slowly, and I felt my heart drop to my stomach in dearI have never felt before, not even as a small child.

Jisoo barely looked alive. His eyes were impossibly sunken, dark, emotionless, and his lips were barely a faint line. The gash in his head was now somehow protruding, bleeding a dark color, and I could almost see it pulse. I wasn’t sure I was looking at my old friend anymore, hell, I didn’t even think he was human.

“What’s happening to Mingyu?” Seungcheol asked, but he didn’t sound too worried.

“I think he’s dying, he started choking himself, and…” I couldn’t calm my breathing down enough to talk.

“What?” In the way Seungcheol asked, there was no shock.

“Please, let’s just get out of here,” I begged, trying not to look at Jisoo too much. He was motionless however, staring at Seungcheol more than he was at me. I hated that I was glad about that. “Please…”

“Whatever.”

As soon as I heard that word, I knew Seungcheol’s lost, too. He wouldn’t care about anything I had to say, nor he would care about Mingyu with his head snapping back, limp. Jisoo’s grip must have extended way past the hand on Seungcheol’s shoulder. Or was it even Jisoo?

I ran. First down the corridor, then downstairs and out. I didn’t think anyone was following me, just like the last time. I knew I had to get back to the camp, head there as fast as I physically could, warn Minghao and get Jeonghan to wake up. We’d wait until morning and go back, I thought. No, we should go back right away, just away from the hotel. I was ready to force Minghao as I could.

It was completely dark outside, and my eyes didn’t get used to the darkness immediately. The moon’s light was enough, though, to get me between the flower beds and towards the gravel road. It made a lot of noise as I run, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was to get to the camp.

By the time I reached the tree line my eyes got used to the darkness, and I was becoming tired. While I couldn’t stop, I dared to look behind me. Nothing was there, nothing that I could see, and I couldn’t even spot the hotel anymore. The thought made me feel almost like I’ll be safe, but I felt like that wouldn’t be enough. I had to get to the camp, I thought, and turned around.

A human figure was standing right between the trees, just a little off to the left. I wondered how I could have possibly not noticed it earlier, ready to bolt in the other direction, when I took another look. It was Minghao.

I was suddenly so happy I started crying again. Finally, someone normal, with something else than indifference on their face. I ran in his direction, flooded with relief of how I’m probably not going to die here in these woods, now that I have him with me.

“God, Minghao, don’t come here, we need to run away,” I pleaded, but he took a couple of steps in my direction.

“Jun, what’s happening?”

“Mingyu’s dead, and Seungcheol’s crazy, please, I was right, this hotel is evil or something,” I sobbed and tried to calm myself down enough to talk. I grabbed Minghao by his wrists in order to pull him closer to me. “You have to listen to me. We have to go, now.”

“Alright, okay, calm down. We’ll go.”

“You believe me?” I asked, wary of something strange hiding in Minghao’s tone. He seemed to agree to do whatever I wanted, but at the same time, he seemed to think I’m crazy.

“Yeah, sure, we don’t have to go to the hotel. Let’s go back” Minghao put his arm around my shoulders. I nodded and breathed deeply, and hurried a couple of steps away from him, in the direction of the woods, but Minghao wasn’t beside me. “Come on, we have to hurry.”

I heard footsteps behind me, but something was wrong. I stopped. I turned around.

“Minghao?” I asked. He was standing there, with a calm expression on his face.

“Yes?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

From behind one of the trees, just next to Minghao, a figure walked out. I didn’t immediately recognize that person in the dim moonlight. It was Jeonghan, his face pale, lips thin, and eyes sunken in.

**Author's Note:**

> While we don't have any evidence of how Seventeen might act in such extreme conditions, I took quite a lot of creative liberty with some of the decisions here. Therefore, if Jun seems out of character to any of you, that's probably because he is. If that explains anything, previously his role was partially intended for Seungkwan, but I decided to change the lineup and cut out quite some characters from the story to make it more coherent. Hopefully, you liked the story enough to be able to forgive me.  
> If you enjoyed it, if you hated it, if you despise or love me now, feel free to yell at me in the comments as there's no other social media I'm really active on. Thank you for reading!


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